Topics Covered: Issues related to health.
Kappa And Lambda- Newest Sars-CoV-2 Variants:
Context:
Kappa and Lambda variants have been labelled as Variants of Interest (VoI) by WHO.
Concerns for India:
- Kappa was first detected in India and more than 3,500 of the close to 30,000 cumulative samples submitted by the country to the GISAID initiative are of this variant.
- In the last 60 days, the Kappa variant has made up 3 per cent of all samples submitted by India. India, in fact, leads the GISAID table for Kappa submissions and is followed by the UK, US, Canada, etc.
What is Lambda?
Lambda is the newest VoI identified by the UN health agency. It was first identified in Peru in December last year and has so far been detected in samples from about 26 countries shared with GISAID. The highest number of samples submitted is from Chile followed by the US. Peru is third on the list.
What is a Variant of Interest?
- This means that the genetic changes involved are predicted or known to affect transmissibility, disease severity, or immune escape.
- It is also an acknowledgement of the fact that the variant has caused significant community transmission in multiple countries and population groups.
Variant of Concern:
A variant for which there is evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease (e.g., increased hospitalizations or deaths), significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures.
Insta Curious:
- Did you know that GISAID is a public platform started by the WHO in 2008 for countries to share genome sequences? Know more about it,
- Do you know about INSACOG? Read Here
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- What is Genome Sequencing?
- How does it work?
- RNA vs DNA.
- What are genes?
- What are VOI and VOC?
Mains Link:
What is genome sequencing? How does it help prevent the spread of COVID 19?
Sources: Indian Express.
